Thursday, Jul 10, 2014
July 26 concert features Martin's "Mass for Double Choir" and Tallis' "Spem in Alium."
The Westminster Summer Choral Festival will present a concert titled “Sing and Glorify,” featuring the Westminster Summer Choral Festival Chamber Choir, conducted by Joe Miller, on Saturday, July 26 at 5 p.m. at Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church in New York, N.Y. A free-will offering will be accepted at the door.
The program will feature Frank Martin’s mesmerizing and ebullient Mass for Double Choir and Thomas Tallis’ monumental and challenging 40-voice motet Spem in Alium. Spem in Alium has garnered some attention as part of the “The Forty Part Motet,” a work by multimedia artist Janet Cardiff, which was exhibited at the Cloisters in New York last year. The installation featured a recording of the work played on 40 speakers - one for each voice in the Salisbury Cathedral Choir, which performed the piece in 2000 - arrayed in an oval.
The Westminster Summer Choral Festival provides choral singers the opportunity to live, sing, study and perform in a professional-level choral ensemble each summer on the campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, N.J. Members of the Chamber Choir come from all over the world and from multiple walks of life. The participants are teachers, students and professional singers who come to improve their musicianship, find inspiration and sing with friends both old and new.
Joe Miller is conductor of two of America’s most renowned choral ensembles: the Westminster Choir and the Westminster Symphonic Choir. He is also director of choral activities at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. In addition to his responsibilities at Westminster Choir College, Dr. Miller is artistic director for choral activities for the renowned Spoleto Festival USA.
As conductor of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, Dr. Miller has collaborated with some of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, earning him critical praise. The New York Times wrote about Symphonic Choir’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Cleveland Orchestra, “Joe Miller’s Westminster Symphonic Choir was subtle when asked and powerful when turned loose.” Recent seasons have included performances with the Philharmoniker Berliner and Sir Simon Rattle; The Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and Gustavo Dudamel.
Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church is located at 552 West End Avenue in New York City, N.Y.